Iron Man‘s Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger was the first supervillain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and then the first supervillain to die within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But according to Jeff Bridges, it wasn’t supposed to be that way.

The actor says the original plan was for Obadiah Stane to survive the first Iron Man, setting him up to return in future installments. As of now, Bridges is still waiting for his call to return. More on the Jeff Bridges Obadiah Stane comments after the jump.

Bridges offered the Iron Man trivia in a Facebook Q&A for IGN. A fan asked had wanted Obadiah Stane to live past the first film. Bridges revealed that not only did he wish that had happened, that’s what was originally supposed to happen:

When I was hired on, it was scripted that Obadiah would live, that when they opened his Iron Monger suit…he was not in it. Then, they decided to kill my ass off. Telling me “it’s a comic-fantasy, so who knows, your character could come back.” I guess we’ll see…

The Iron Monger falls into this big pit of whatever it is, some kind of acid or something, in his costume. They pull it up in the big crane and they open up his costume and he’s gone. And when we were shooting that film they said, “No we’re not going to do that. We’re just going to have you go.” And I said, “Oh shit, I was kind of disappointed.” Because I was thinking [I would] be in the sequels. But they said it’s a comic book maybe the Iron Monger will come back. I said “Yeah, right.”

Bridges has previously said Iron Manhad no script when it started shooting, so it sounds like some of the details changed as production went on. Instead of bringing back Obadiah Stane, Marvel followed him with the forgettable Ivan Vanko / Whiplash in Iron Man 2. At least Iron Man 3 had a couple of interesting antagonist in Aldrich Killian, and a fantastic plot twist in the Mandarin.

The wording suggests Bridges would be open to reprising his role as Stane, which is an intriguing idea — but not one that’s likely to come true. Marvel has gone to the fake-death well a few times already, but that treatment seems reserved for heroes, former / possible future heroes (i.e., Bucky) and Loki. Most of the bad guys who’ve died have stayed dead.

Then again, Marvel has like ten more films to fill, so who knows? Do you wish Obadiah Stane had stayed alive?